>>Would it be possible to store by-thread read marks client side (by
>>cookie, or something similar)...then, if al lthe threads in a forum
>>are up-to-date, mark the forum read as in the current system?
>
>Not in any reliable way. The cookie spec limits a client to a maximum
>of 20 cookies per site. And there is also a limit on the maximum
>number of bytes a client can store per *site* - total of all cookies.
>There is also a limit per cookie. Storing timestamps for every thread
>could add up to a lot of information to be storing.

ew...that's what I get for knowing incredibly little about cookies...I'm almost sorry I asked..

>And, of course,
>it locks you to that browser on that machine. If you went from work
>to home, or school to home, etc, all of your marks would be gone -
>everything would be unread. If you use NS4 with roaming it might be
>ok, but that's not likely these days.

that's why I was saying by-forum read marks should/would still be server side...so if you'd only half-read the forum, you shouldn't switch machines...but if you've read everything, a mark like is curently used would be placed server-side.

ok, so I'm not really explaining this as well as it is in my head...the cookie size/number limit pretty much kills this idea, anyway.

>One of the big advantages to a web forum, over say news, is that it is
>client independent.

no arguement there